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Innovation for Good

Enticed by a sweet treat, a cow learns to use the "MooLoo," a latrine for cattle, where excrement can be collected. The only question is: can this technique work on a larger scale?

Researchers Potty Trained Young Cows, a Promising Measure to Reduce Greenhouse Gases

One cow pees up to eight gallons a day; training them is easy, and capturing and treating the waste could make a difference

The microCOVID project was started by a group of friends and housemates who wanted to be more equitable about safety precautions.

Innovation for Good: Game Changers

This Calculator Estimates Your Risk of Getting Covid-19

The online tool draws on recent data to approximate your chances of contracting the virus in different scenarios

Can a machine be taught to understand the plant world?

Innovation for Good: Game Changers

Is This Weed-Spotting, Yield-Predicting Rover the Future of Farming?

The robot, developed by Alphabet Inc.’s X, will make its public debut at the Smithsonian

Firefighters walk towards one of the towers at the World Trade Center before it collapsed on September 11, 2001.

Innovation for Good: Game Changers

9/11 Changed How Doctors Treat PTSD

New research in the 20 years since the September 11th attacks has led to better therapies for those diagnosed with trauma disorders

Orca will be able to capture the equivalent of the annual emissions made by 790 cars.

Innovation for Good: Game Changers

World’s Largest Carbon Capture Plant Opens in Iceland

‘Orca’ will use geothermal energy to pull thousands of metric tons of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and pump it underground

Scientists recreated the famous beef, which is prized for its fat marbling, or sashi.

Innovation for Good: Game Changers

Scientists Create First 3-D Printed Wagyu Beef

The cultured cut matches the texture and marbling of the famous Japanese meat

Fossil fuel-free steel was made for the first time in Sweden using "green" hydrogen technology.

Innovation for Good: Game Changers

Fossil Fuel–Free ‘Green’ Steel Produced for the First Time

A Swedish consortium delivered the first batch of the metal—made using ‘green’ hydrogen—to an automobile manufacturer for truck production

Through the Freedmen's Bureau, formerly enslaved people were able to obtain formal legal recognition of their marriages.

Innovation for Good: Game Changers

Newly Digitized Freedmen’s Bureau Records Help Black Americans Trace Their Ancestry

Genealogists, historians and researchers can now peruse more than 3.5 million documents from the Reconstruction-era agency

Rasha Alqahtani, an 18-year-old from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, won a third award in the behavioral and social sciences category of the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair for her prototype of a video game feature to assess anxiety. In addition to her STEM research, Alqahtani is a poet and artist.

Innovation for Good: Game Changers

This Teenager Is Developing a Video Game That Assesses Your Mental Health

Rasha Alqahtani, an 18-year-old from Saudi Arabia, is determined to help her peers learn about their anxiety—in the wildly popular setting of ‘Minecraft’

ELSA-d is a demonstration device designed to show that space debris removal is possible.

Innovation for Good: Game Changers

Can the World’s First Space Sweeper Make a Dent in Orbiting Debris?

A private company has just completed the first successful test of its trash collector

In this long exposure picture, trees burn on a hillside behind Honey Lake campground during the Dixie Fire on August 18, 2021 in Milford, California. The wildfire in Northern California continues to grow, burning over 626,000 acres according to CalFire.

Innovation for Good: Game Changers

From Supercomputers to Fire-Starting Drones, These Tools Help Fight Wildfires

As climate change worsens wildfires in the West, agencies are tapping into new technologies to keep up with the flames

After the cells developed into mini-brains, the optic cups formed 30 days later and fully matured at 50 days.

Innovation for Good: Game Changers

Mini Brains Grown From Stem Cells Developed Light-Sensitive, Eye-Like Features

Understanding how eyes develop can help researchers pinpoint how to treat early retinal diseases

Transplanting a human protein, known for promoting growth, into crops may engender larger, heavier and more bountiful plants.

Innovation for Good: Game Changers

Researchers Transfer a Human Protein Into Plants to Supersize Them

While a promising route to boosting crop yields, experts say more work needs to be done to understand why the tweak works

Oceanix is gearing up to build a prototype of a 5-acre city for 300 residents in a yet-to-be determined location.

Innovation for Good: Game Changers

In the Face of Rising Seas, Are Floating Cities a Real Possibility?

A scale model of Oceanix City, a concept capable of supporting more than 10,000 residents, will be featured in the Smithsonian’s upcoming ‘Futures’ exhibit

This small device flashes red if a visitor gets too close to an artwork or fails to wear their face mask correctly.

Innovation for Good: Game Changers

Italian Museum Uses Cameras to Track How Visitors Engage With Art

A new A.I. system hopes to help curators determine artworks’ “attraction value” and optimize gallery layouts

Run, Cassie, run!

‘Star Wars’–Like Running Robot Finishes 5K on Two Legs

The untethered bipedal bot made history by completing the outdoor course in 53 minutes

The researchers flew their fridge on parabolic flights to simulate a microgravity environment.

Innovation for Good: Game Changers

The Quest to Build a Functional, Energy-Efficient Refrigerator That Works in Space

Designed and tested by Purdue University engineers, this new appliance would lengthen the shelf life of food on long missions

Before killing Salmonella, the detergent-like protein APOL3 (green) must get through the bacteria's protective outer membrane (red).

Innovation for Good: Game Changers

Human Cells Ward Off Bacterial Invaders With a Protein That Behaves Like Soap

Researchers discover that immune cells aren’t the body’s only line of defense against bacterial pathogens

Four robots printed the steel structure in just six months.

Innovation for Good: Game Changers

World’s First 3-D-Printed Steel Bridge Debuts in Amsterdam

The newly opened overpass measures 40 feet long and weighs 6 tons

Group portrait of three Chinese children, each holding an American flag and a Chinese flag, in a room in Chicago, 1929

Innovation for Good: Game Changers

Illinois Becomes First State to Mandate Teaching Asian American History

The move arrives amid a surge in anti-Asian hate crimes across the country

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